All that's left to happen
by Proton Star
Summary: Erik has spent most of his life with one aim, kill Schmidt. Now he knows he needs to kill Schmidt and survive.


Title: All that's left to happen

Author: Red Fiona

Disclaimer: The characters and the settings do not belong to me; they belong to Marvel and/or Fox. No money is being made from this.

Fandom: X-Men: First Class

Characters: Erik Lensherr

Rating: PG-12

Notes: Contains references to the Holocaust.

Summary: Erik has spent most of his life with one aim, kill Schmidt. Now he knows he needs to kill Schmidt and survive.

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Erik knew that Charles wouldn't understand his reasoning, never mind condone any part of what he was planning to do. He doesn't need Charles's permission, because he will do what needs to be done no matter what, but he knows he needs Charles to complete his plan. Charles will never forgive him, because Charles has ridiculous ideals that reality can t sustain, but he doesn't seek Charles's forgiveness either. He would have liked Charles's understanding though.

It wasn't that Charles was stupid, or naive. He was just boundlessly optimistic. Erik had had optimism beaten out of him a long time ago. He wanted to be there when life knocked it out of Charles, not so he could say 'I told you so' but because he knew it would hit Charles hard and he wanted to be around to put him back together.

He couldn't blame Charles for his optimism, a house like this spoke of a background that made optimism easy. It was not a trait that Erik shared. He never had, nor had he ever needed it. He'd always had his mission to sustain him instead.

It would be too easy to ridicule Charles's optimism as something only possible when it wasn't tested, except he'd met people who had survived the camps and remained hopeful. Judyta had seen horrors and remained hopeful. She had been his first love. She'd found him stumbling, disorientated after he'd used the chaos of the Allies advancing to escape from Schmidt. Knowing nothing about him, she'd taken him into her care, introduced him to her family and offered to take him with them to their new life.

She would have looked after him, and he could have been happy for the rest of his life.

But he knew he would never be satisfied while Schmidt lived, and that he had to kill the man.

He had heard that Schmidt had fled to the East, and prepared to follow him. He lied to Judyta, telling her that he'd heard that some of his family had survived and were living in Silesia and that that was where he was going. It was the lying that felt wrong, but he knew it was for the best. She would try to talk him out of his plan, not because she didn't understand but because she would worry that getting his revenge would get Erik killed.

That didn't matter to Erik. Anything was a reasonable price to kill Schmidt.

He never saw Judyta again. He is not a prayerful man, but he hopes that she is happy.

Erik met Magda through her brothers. They had lost everything too, and were tracking down the men who had ordered the deaths of their family, their friends and almost everyone they'd ever known.

Magda was not Judyta. Magda was as deadly as a bullet.

But in her own way, Magda believed in life as much as Judyta did, life grabbed at and taken because it wouldn't be given to you.

Erik stayed with Magda and her brothers, helped them with their revenge. He told himself it was because a lot of the men that they were tracking had information about Schmidt, but he knew it was partly because the three of them were the closest thing he'd had to family since before the camps. He didn't need anyone but it was nice to have someone else to talk to. Someone else to understand.

Erik should have known that nothing good lasted.

It was becoming clear that Schmidt had headed back west, so that was where Erik had to go. Magda and her brothers had nearly tracked down all their targets and he wasn't needed there anymore. He had to complete his own mission. Magda understood that. But she wanted more.

Magda had plans for what she would do once they'd killed those who had wronged her family. She wanted to know if she should include Erik in her calculations. Magda did not believe in wasting time with unnecessary preamble. "When you go," because she knew he had to go to kill Schmidt, "if you come back, come back to live." She meant, of course, go and be successful, or come back and stay, but don t fail and come back to try again. It was a fair request.

Magda always thought his plans were too dangerous, that the risks he exposed himself to were too great. He'd never told her about his powers, about why he didn't have to fear bullets. Back then he couldn't be sure that Schmidt hadn't been lying to him about there being others with similar powers. Now, having met Charles and Raven, and helping them find others, he knows Schmidt had told the truth, and that means he has to start planning for the long term. He didn't do that before, he only ever thought of the next step in his mission to find Schmidt and how to accomplish it. It was one of the things that had worried Magda. He had no goals beyond killing Schmidt. He hadn't expected to survive, given how powerful Schmidt was, so there was little point in thinking ahead. Magda couldn't understand, but then again, her enemies were only human. All he cared about was killing Schmidt.

Now though, he has to think of what would come after. He thinks that, with Charles's help, he can kill Schmidt without dying in the process. Getting Charles's help is vital if he wants to live and he needs to survive to save mutantkind from humans. He will not see his people suffer again.

Erik doesn't understand how Charles can't see how human will undoubtedly try to kill mutants when they become aware of the existence of mutantkind. He hopes it's not wilful ignorance, because that's beneath someone of Charles's intelligence and powers. He also thinks better than that of Charles, no, Charles's blindness to the truth of what Erik says is due to his excessive belief in the goodness of people, and he thinks that's incurable, until something terrible happens to Charles. And Erik doesn't want that to happen.

He thinks, sometimes, of another world, where his past is different, and he could love Charles without this hanging over them, as it always will. It's one of the many other worlds he has always avoided thinking of, the worlds where he was strong enough so that his mother lived, where he married Judyta, where he stayed with Magda. All those thoughts are only sentiment, something he couldn't and cannot afford if he wants to live. He doesn't wish himself in those other worlds, because then who would protect his fellow mutants? He had failed to protect those he loved once already, but he will not let that happen again. Charles is too trusting to be left to do this, and Schmidt would be dead. If Schmidt hadn't killed his mother and shown the kind of man he truly was, he would have trusted Schmidt to look after everyone but blood must be paid with blood.

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End Notes: Yes, I'm still writing First Class fic, because I write at snail-speed.


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